SpaceX Starship development: fifth flight, captures booster

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Flight discussion happened here

The FAA confirmed that there is no incident investigation after the fourth flight as both ship and booster flew their nominal mission. SpaceX could launch another mission with the same profile as soon as they are ready.

It's possible they'll try to catch the booster with IFT-5. Getting that approved will take some time.

SpaceX is exchanging the way the heat shield tiles are attached to ship 30. Future Starships will have their flaps a bit farther to the back, reducing the control authority but also reducing heat loads.

 

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Slow motion of a six Raptor static fire (the ship being prepared for the fifth flight):



Link in case the embedding doesn't work.

 

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Looks like the fifth flight won't happen before late November.

• because the ship isn't ready - it is
• because the booster isn't ready - it is
• because the launch pad isn't ready - it is
• because they are still working on landing tests - everything is ready
• because there are safety concerns about the landing process - resolved
• because there is too much mercury in the deluge water - made up by CNBC
• because a steel ring will crash into the ocean at a slightly different position compared to the previous flight
• because the radius where the sonic boom is audible might be slightly larger than previously approved

It's a simple, inert structural steel ring between booster and ship that gets discarded after staging and boostback burn and crashes into the ocean. It doesn't affect any life in the ocean unless it directly hits something on impact. And that was already approved - the fifth flight just changes the impact location a bit. That delays the launch by at least two months.

Unsurprisingly, SpaceX isn't happy.

 

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SpaceX recovered some components of the booster from the fourth flight. It performed a successful soft "landing" at a simulated capture height, but then dropped down into the ocean which broke things, and of course it has been in the water for a while now. Part of the engine section

 

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No FAA approval yet, but SpaceX is now optimistic to have it for an October 13 launch (this Sunday). They have obtained all the road closures, exclusion zones and so on, and prepare the rocket for launch. The booster capture is still planned.

 

[.Scott]

They're very optimistic.
According to this article, they have installed the explosives for the Flight Termination System. That article also describes what that indicates for the launch schedule.

 

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You can practice booster landings here

 

[.Scott]

The FAA just approved the fifth SpaceX Starship launch.

per Yahoo

per Bloomberg

 

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Two hours until the launch window opens.

NASASpaceflight coverage (live)
SpaceX coverage (in 1.5 hours)

 

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Capture!

(ah, and the ship is in almost-orbit as planned)

 

[Rive]

That was ... spectacular.
And it's just half of the show so far.

 

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Reentry starting very soon. 115 km now.

The reentry looks much smoother than last time. Almost no small pieces falling off. No big flap maneuvers. It's super stable at 75 km, peak heating.

 

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And successful touchdown. Exploded shortly after tipping over. They had some buoys in the ocean at the expected landing spot and it looks like it landed within a few hundred meters of one. Can't be off by kilometers, might have hit the spot exactly.

Still a bit of flap damage but it kept working as a flap throughout. A really successful flight overall.

Next (tomorrow): Europa Clipper on Falcon Heavy.

SpaceX already has the permission to repeat this flight profile for a sixth flight, and it's likely they will. More data on all flight phases, further improvements to the hinge. More confidence that Starship can reenter and stay intact before they apply for permission to reenter over the US/Mexico for a ship capture.
Maybe we finally get the in-flight Raptor relight demo and then fully orbital missions from flight 7 on.

 

[nsaspook]

4K] Watch SpaceX Catch A Starship Rocket From Space!!!​

 

[Tom.G]

4K] Watch SpaceX Catch A Starship Rocket From Space!!!​

For those that can't get the above link to work, try this one:


Launch is at 2hrs 24min (2:24)
Recapture by launch tower at 2:31

Cheers,
Tom

 

[pinball1970]

For those that can't get the above link to work, try this one:


Launch is at 2hrs 24min (2:24)
Recapture by launch tower at 2:31

Cheers,
Tom

That is the craziest thing I have ever seen, on earth.

 

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They have lowered the booster on the launch mount and attached the Quick Disconnect, i.e. the thing that fuels the booster, provides electric power on the ground and so on. This shows that all relevant bits survived well enough to still fit together, and it lets them fully detank the booster. They'll likely remove it from the launch mount soon and disassemble it partially to inspect it in detail. It won't fly again, although a few components might. If things go really well we might see some additional tests on the launch pad. Some engine nozzles have been damaged, so probably no engines involved, but maybe we get tanking tests?

High resolution image of the landing booster:

 

[nsaspook]

Starship Launch and Booster Catch Super Cut​

 

[pinball1970]

Starship Launch and Booster Catch Super Cut​

There should be a wow/holy dang emoji

 

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Booster static fire for flight 6. The ship has been tested already. The next flight could come soon.

 

[Flyboy]

Good flight for ITF-6. Booster was not recovered due to an unspecified issue, but landed safely in the Gulf of Mexico. It did suffer a catastrophic failure of the fuel tank when it tipped over, though, producing a spectacular fireball of burning methane.

Starship successfully reentered and landed pretty much exactly on target, with at least one buoy camera and another long range camera capturing the action. Looked like one of the engines might have cut out at the last moment, but it splashed down safely, tipped over… and also promptly destroyed its propellant tanks. Not as spectacular but the long range camera clearly showed a major collapse of the structure.

Given the direction of the forces after both vehicles tipped over, I am completely unsurprised that they failed after hitting the water.

 

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The catch attempt was aborted due to a communication issue with the tower. Quite possible it would have worked anyway but it wasn't worth the risk.

Looked like one of the engines might have cut out at the last moment

This is intentional. If they start up two engines and one of them has an issue they crash. To increase redundancy, they start up all 3 center engines and then shut down one.

NASA plans flying one of their observation aircraft to Australia in early January and SpaceX is aiming at a 7th flight on January 12, although the exact date is likely to change. It will be a transatmospheric orbit again, but we can expect flight 8 to go to a stable orbit. Potentially with a ship catch attempt.